The Boston Bruins bought out the final two years of defenseman Dennis Seidenberg’s contract, the team announced Thursday. The buyout makes Seidenberg an unrestricted free agent who is free to sign with any other NHL team. “It’s a shock,” Seidenberg told the Boston Herald. “(Bruins general manager) Donnie (Sweeney) called …

THE DRIVEAre the Bruins Becoming Irrelevant? By Aaron Jackson .It pains me to write this post. I don’t want to sit here and type these words because I love the Boston Bruins, and like most good Mainers I love watching hockey. I am often seen wearing a Bruins hat, and my dog has a Bruins tag on his collar. …

The Bruins continue to shore up their forward group with veteran options. Last week, they signed Dominic Moore to a one-year deal. And on Wednesday, they brought in big, skilled forward Peter Mueller for another NHL try.

Mueller has spent the last three seasons in Europe, lighting up the Swiss and Swedish Leagues. He was a lottery pick of the Coyotes in 2006 and had 22 goals and 54 points in 81 games as a rookie in 2007-08. But concussions and other injury problems eroded Mueller's effectiveness and he was a shadow of what he'd been as a rookie during his last four years in the league, in which he bounced from Phoenix to Colorado to Florida. In his last NHL season, 2012-13, he had 8 goals and 17 points in 43 games with the Panthers. Mueller had 13 goals and 25 points in 43 games for Malmo last season, but has also been a minus player in four of his last five seasons, including his European tour.

The Bruins have made headlines twice in the last month, two pieces of news with potentially major impacts on the future of the club. One good, one bad.

Taking the good news first, we look, of course, to yesterday’s official unveiling of the Warrior Ice Arena, the team’s new, state-of-the-art practice facility aside the Mass. Pike in Brighton.

Kudos to Cam Neely, who began an exhaustive search for a new practice rink almost as soon as he was named team president nine years ago. It seemed he was checking out a new possibility every few weeks.

NEELY: BRUINS WANT TO CLOSE A MARCHAND DEAL 'BEFORE START OF THE SEASON'

Brad Marchand scored 37 goals in a career year for the Black and Gold last season, and he spent Friday night skating far away from Boston on a dominant World Cup line for Team Canada with Patrice Bergeron and Sidney Crosby. Both of those things have added to the 28-year-old’s value as he heads into a potential free agent walk season, and his representation is in present talks with Bruins management about a contract extension.

Given the premium cost of goal-scoring around the NHL, Marchand wouldn’t be out of bounds asking for the same $7-7.5 million annual salary that peers like Bobby Ryan and Zach Parise have earned in free agency over the last few years. The 5-foot-9, 183-pounder would also certainly want a long term deal in the 7-8 year range with the Bruins which could bring a realistic contract extension into the neighborhood of $49-60 million when it’s all said and done.

John-Michael Liles may not have been around long, but the taste of last season’s ending was just as bitter for the 35-year-old defenseman as it was for any of his relatively new Bruins teammates.

Rinsing that taste out of his mouth was part of Liles’ motivation for re-upping for a year with the B’s. Liles — obtained at the trade deadline for a 2016 third-round draft pick, a 2017 fifth-rounder and minor league winger Anthony Camara — signed for $2 million on July 1.

The experienced puck mover, one of the first arrivals for captain’s practices nearly two weeks ago, began talking about a contract extension with general manager Don Sweeney almost immediately after the season.

HAGGERTY: BRUINS SEARCHING FOR ANSWERS ON DEFENSE - COULD COLIN MILLER BE ONE?

BOLTON, Mass. – The Bruins have the salary cap space and they still have the interest in nabbing a puck-moving defenseman they can install into their top-four group on the back end.

Both of these things have been true for the past 15 months after trading Dougie Hamilton to the Calgary Flames, and for the past two years since shipping Johnny Boychuk off to the New York Islanders.

Whether it’s David Krejci or Ryan Spooner, the Bruins also have a surplus of centers now that would seem to indicate potential trade chips in place if Don Sweeney wanted to act quickly on a good, old-fashioned hockey swap.

The Boston Bruins began last season looking to get back to the postseason after missing the cut in 2014-15 and then seeing a major turnover in personnel that included new addresses for Milan Lucic, Dougie Hamilton and GM Peter Chiarelli.

Coach Claude Julien was spared, however, with the vow that the Bruins would be more aggressive offensively. And they were, going from a 2.55 goals-per-game average to 2.88 last season. Unfortunately, their goals-against average went from 2.45 to 2.78.

Despite some bright spots – Brad Marchand’s 37-goal season, the emergence of David Pastrnak – the Bruins fell short of the playoffs for a second-straight season with a 42-31-9 (93 points) campaign, missing the last wild card by just three points and losing a tie-breaker to Detroit for the last playoff spot in the Atlantic.